


Puppies and Paperwork

by Opalgirl



Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: Gen, One Shot, puppies!, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:43:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalgirl/pseuds/Opalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What on earth am I supposed to do with puppies?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puppies and Paperwork

**Author's Note:**

  * For [boosette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boosette/gifts).



> For boosette: The prompt involved Kel and puppies.

Keladry of Mindelan opened her eyes to the pale grey light of dawn, then realized where she'd fallen asleep. At her desk, atop the reports that needed to go to her district commander. Ink was smeared and blotted across one page, making it unreadable. She grumbled a curse and pushed her chair back, her back aching.

_That's what I get for actually trying to do my paperwork_, she thought, wryly. She half-listened to the sounds coming through her shutters as she warmed water in a pot in the fire. Her people were already up and at the spring chores, by the sounds.

She was washing the smeared ink off her face when a sparrow lit on her shoulder, peeping insistently. Kel put down her cloth and looked around, puzzled. She'd left food and water out for the birds... and then, half-awake, she saw it.

Jump stood in a corner of her bedchamber, his crooked tail waving. Behind him lay another dog, a female, probably belonging to one of the residents of New Hope, surrounded by sparrows - and a brand new litter of puppies.

Kel rubbed her eyes. Puppies? "I suppose you want me to be proud of you," she told Jump, whose tail wagged faster in response, his alert black eyes fixed on her. She knelt down to inspect mother and litter, tucking her nightgown's skirt out of the way.

The mother, who was well-fed enough to be a pet, not a stray or one abandoned by locals fleeing the war, licked Kel's hand and whuffed. She looked as if she might be related to the hounds used by lords and huntsmen alike for tracking small game.

Kel looked over the litter, carefully - five tiny pups, one with Jump's black-on-white markings, the others a combination of blacks and browns. They seemed to be healthy enough. But whatever was she to do with puppies? She was told she traveled with a small menagerie as it was.

"Milady?" Tobe stepped into the room. "Sir Neal is looking for you..." The boy trailed off. "Puppies?"

"Yes, Tobe." Kel sighed, wearily. "Puppies."

"You're a Da, Jump," Tobe told the dog, who barked in agreement, tail still wagging. "Milady, didn't you go to bed last night?"

Kel raised her eyebrows at the boy, who was a skinny thirteen-year-old, and said mildly, "Are you mothering me?"

"No, lady." Tobe ducked his head and scratched Jump's lone ear.

"Good. Shoo. I need to get dressed." She shoved him towards the door and hunted for her clothes, once he was gone. She had things to do, the new litter of puppies being the least of her worries.

***

"By Mithros." Neal squatted down to inspect the pups, later that evening. "Jump multiplied. The Stump would probably love this."

Kel shook her head. "What on earth am I supposed to do with puppies?"

Neal fixed her with his green eyes. "Mindelan, don't tell me you never had strays growing up. I know you."

"The housekeeper looked after them when they were this small," she explained, "and if I'm posted elsewhere, with things winding down, I can't take them all with me."

"When they're weaned, take them to my lord Wyldon," Neal suggested, scratching Jump's backside. "They'd probably make fine game dogs. Or give them to the heathen village children."

"Neal!"

"They _are_ heathens."

"They are children, _not_ heathens." She looked back at the litter that now occupied the corner of her bedroom - a room barely larger than her quarters as a page.

"Also, you've got ink on your face. Fall asleep on your reports?" Neal raised his eyebrows, knowingly.

Kel thought a string of curses and went to wash her face again. "Why didn't anyone say anything?"

"They wouldn't. They like you, Mother."

"Behave," she threatened in her best 'Mother' voice, "or I'll tell Yuki on you."

Neal looked offended, his face in an expression worthy of a Player on the stage. "I am behaving," he muttered, thinking she couldn't hear. He rose, stretching. "I have reports too, dear Protector - Father and Master Harailt want to know what I've learned from the locals, this far north."

Kel glared at his retreating back. "Stop calling me that ridiculous name," she muttered, annoyed by it.


End file.
